David Sengeh of Innovate Salone writes:
Mohamed S. Harding is a 17-year old student at Prince of Wales secondary school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Having professed his interest in robotics and engineering to his uncle, who then told him about Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Mohamed decided to take matters into his own hands and sought me out. I told him about Innovate Salone and the opportunity that the initiative extends to young people in Sierra Leone to experience the creative freedom so valued at MIT. As an action step, I mentioned to Mohamed a competition I knew that challenged anyone to design a robot for US$10.
While completing one of MIT's most popular robotics classes through MIT OpenCourseWare, Mohamed used recycled materials to design and manufacture a robot in his bedroom. Describing his product, he says, "I used a chip, which I extracted it from a spoiled toy, and the components of dinosaur legs which have a gear system to make robot arms. The trunk has a USB webcam and LED lights to spy." Mohamed's dream is to become an engineer and [view whole blog post ]